Supergroups, Global Friends, and You

[Dona Eis Requiem]

A curiosity question.

Given that Paragon exists in a much smaller realm these days, how do you go about having the player experience you're after?

My SG before sunset was a solo stronghold but became an active group born of a split in play style. There was a group of characters standing around protesting City Hall about it. We all played the same way, so I opened my doors.

 

Supergroups:

Do we still use these to have a group of like-minded folks to accompany us on our travels? Is your SG a solo stronghold?

 

Global/Local Friends: 

Do you actually add people to your friends lists? Is this something you generally don't bother with?

 

For me, my SG is a solo thing. Would I be willing to join an existing SG? Sure, but I think I made it more difficult for myself by making the Unofficial RP server my home. I love the creativity being expressed by others but I don't do RP myself. 

Most of my game time is solo leveling. I enjoy the scenery along the way, so to speak, but at a brisk walk.

I'll usually jump on any TF that gets shouted out and roll with whatever the pace of the team is.

 

I wouldn't even know where to begin to find an SG that suits me these days. 

Friends lists don't *seem* to be a thing as I'm sure everyone already has their group of friends established.

I'm fine with PUGs but would not be adverse to having a regular group again. 

 

So how do you go about the City these days? Do you still use these social options? 

 

 

[cranebump]

I WISH I could run with a tight group of people on a regular basis, but scheduling is tough. I currently have THU nights and Friday mornings. The closest I have to a "regular" run on anything is when I happen to get on Blapperella runs (on whose flashback TFs I've been about a half dozen times), and, of late, I've caught a global friend's teams a few times (once by a direct invite, which was cool). I'm thinking now that, if I want this sort of shared experience, I'm going to have to be more committed to making it happen. But I also have stints where I spend a lot of time making AE stories, and I want the freedom to do that (plus I run my old Dungeon World via online play, so I have to balance that). So I'm solo mostly, or run Pugs/TFS others start, due to being a bit selfish about my time.

Edited September 29, 2023 by cranebump

[furniturepolish]

1 hour ago, Dona Eis Requiem said:

 

Supergroups:

 

I have like four solo strongholds and they are all wretched little hallways with bare walls save for one which I added a basketball hoop and some detergent to. I invite my mom and brother to these if they want but my brother has his own SG and it has an amazing base that probably took days to make. I play with those two fairly frequently but our available times dont always line up.

 

1 hour ago, Dona Eis Requiem said:

Global/Local Friends: 

I like everyone I've ever played with and two of them have added me and that's about it for friends. I'm a cowardly gamer that won't take that first step.

 

Edited September 27, 2023 by furniturepolish

[Without_Pause]

Solo SG. I did friend people at one point, but I honestly solo so much it feels a bit pointless. The one time it was useful was when a friend was also playing. 

[SeraphimKensai]

The guild/SG I'm in is a MMO specific chapter of a larger guild that started back in EQ days. That said the chapter was one of the more well known SGs back during the live production era on our home server of Guardian and later Pinnacle. Homecoming our chapter settled on Everlasting and for awhile we had the band back together when nostalgia was still pretty fresh. We have a main SG base, and then have SG bases for sub teams within the main SG, and then individual members also often have their own SG/base for personal storage and because we don't have to grind prestige to build bases.

 

So I personally have a couple characters tagged in the relevant SG, otherwise the bulk of my characters are stored in my own personal SG. This can cause a minor headache for coordination, but you can use base codes to enter any SG's base as necessary, create global chat channels for an SG, and use things like Discord for voice communication.

 

I'll add people to my global friends list like some of my fellow SG members, but I can see who's online in our global chat channel, otherwise I'll have people I've met over the last four years that play similarly to me whether that's PvP, speed TFs, itrials, hard mode TFs, etc so I can arrange a group of people that I've personally vetted by playing with.

 

Otherwise I'll often pug low level TFs and random content, but more often than not I've been recognized on Everlasting by other people I've ran previous content with, even if I'm on another toon as we all check each other's global when we chat.

 

That fact that the OP plays on Everlasting, chances are I've ran a number of TFs with over the course of time, despite my thinly veiled separation of my forum handle and my in-game globals.

[liveevil2000]

Supergroups:

My SG is made up of 3 other people. I long for the days when I had a dozen or so people in my SG at any given time. But it seems most people arent very interested or have their own SG.

 

Global/Local Friends: 

Use it all the time. I look there to see if anyone wants to team up. I feel like my Global friends list is what my SG was on live.

[JasperStone]

I had a solid Global/ Friends list on Indom not so much on Excel.

 

There are enough people who run content that I don't need it.

 

...

Sounds better than me saying I have no friends ...

 

[Snarky]

I have experienced the "most incredible" group gaming online.  It was here in CoH with Cosmic Council.  Near nightly activities and weekly Master Incarnate TF runs (Master Really Hard Way every week!)  Sigh.... The leadership of Cosmic are hard chargers.  They had kids and moved onto other challenges after blasting everything in CoH to bits (badges, completion times, holes in game geometry, you name it.  I even got to watch then dance Sally onto shore for half an hour....)

 

Now I am working a very screwy schedule, studying German language, and trying to hit weightlifting goals.  My gaming time and need for an SG is pretty low.  Most of my CoH experience is currently forum lurking.

 

 

[High_Beam]

I have a SG The Girls of Nukem High that has organized field trips on Sunday where we do stuff as a SG.  We have a Base with things and stuff.  Many of the members are very active and thus I have them in my global so when we aren't doing cute girls in short skirts stuff we are running together.

 

Furthermore, several core members have created other SGs that are themed, a Cat one and a Pirate one and a few others.  I participate in the first two where there are specific days of the week set for them (Cats on SAT, Pirates on Tuesday) that way people can still play their way and solo or pug or roll with other friends and then also get a SG fun day in.  Those do not have bases of note except the pirates which aaaarrrrgh awesome.

 

Also we are friends with several other SGs so coalition fun is often had.

 

Finally I have my Solo SG which bears the name of the SG I was in on Live (The Babes of War) where I put all of my other alts that aren't in these themed SGs (specific costumes and size requirements, I don't always want to be short and cute or cat and cute).  That base is built out to provide me storage and services.  It is not for recruiting.

[lemming]

Very small SGs on a few servers shared with three other people.  They were the ones i played with on live that still play.

 

Decently sized friends list which is one way to figure out who else is on at times (or via discord)

And usually sending messages that are of the "That's a cool name!"

[Oubliette_Red]

The folks I play with are actually folks I played with back on Legacy with a range of SG's from themed, to overflow, to solo. Don't think I've added anyone new to my Global that wasn't also on it prior to shutdown. Most of our play is 'kill most' regardless of it being a mission, bank or TF/SF.

 

Edited September 27, 2023 by Oubliette_Red
Because I can't post a single sentence without at least 1 typo.

[Etched]

I have a solid SG base with a total of 6 people(one of those six is my wife). We all teamed together durin Live and still do every Sunday.

 

As far as Global friends.... Well, i see it as this, if I don't team or at least talk to you once a week then you don't have a place on my friend list. This isn't Pokemon and I'm not tryin to collect them all. So, I only have 7 friends. LoL

 

What can I say, I'm picky about my friends. 

Honestly, there are not alot of people that plays steadily in the mornins on Torch. So I duo a ton or every once in a while I'll put together a pug.

 

@Etched  

 

or it could be that people just don't like me. Who knows... 🙂

[uninventive]

Team mostly on Global list and PUGs via LFT/General chat.  More chat than friends these days. 

 

And most of those friends are Homecoming-specific.  Folks from Live I used to play with are out in various diaspora: different shards, different rogue servers... And more than a handful have moved on from MMOs to play other stuff.  The world turned and even with City of Heroes coming back, they saw it and said "it's not my scene anymore.  Glad it's back but I'm invested in my time elsewhere."  Reasons vary: No more love for any MMOs (COH may/may not be the cause), memories in any form good or bad, missing friends who aren't there, or wanting more than the return of what we actually got (such as Paragon Studios which isn't possible).

For that reason SGs have fallen out of favor for me mostly.  Like others said my 20s are radically different than my 40s.  Where I was broke and couch surfing I had plenty of time to participate in regular teams, meet up with SG members as a club situation, and help folks with SG lowbies to do missions.  Now I'm able to live on my own but my free time is the first thing to go when money and errands demand more and more attention.  When I can play it's for either <45 minutes before something else... or at night when I'm too exhausted to stay up long.  So the lure of "an active SG with progression-minded teams" doesn't really appeal any longer.

 

As for starting one up I don't have the time to do in-game meetings or curate a SG roster even if Discord or some other method to reach folks out of game is involved.  So base editing is the only reason my SG exists at all.  Absent of that I'd try the Freedom Corps Building/Items via Email/Mule Toon method of managing stuff without one.

[Sir Paladin]

I came back to the game about 4 months ago and started solo mostly but now I prefer to team; mainly because I want to get to 50:) (The second time around I want to level as many different powerset combo as I can while I am still able to play). I transferred to Everlasting just because it is a more popular server and have acquired three cool people to global friends. Pretty much all my teaming is from TF's or PUGs (which no one really talks). I have solo base but those are mostly just for vaults and teleport pads. 

 

I do like to find more players to regularly team up with, idle chit chat and cruise though missions. I have no life so currently in Paragon a lot at the moment (which will change and evolve over the coming months).  So anyone on Everlasting looking for someone to team with at times give @Hunter Paladin a poke. 

[Spaghetti Betty]

Since everything is free and unlocked for SGs, I have my own that I use to house all of my alts, storage, and make some neat rooms every now and then. As far as global friends go, I generally don't add anyone unless they add me first. I can be hard to spot out in the wild, so I'm pretty sure my list still has room!

 

As far as I'm concerned, Global channels and Coalitions have taken the place of SGs in Homecoming.

[UltraAlt]

13 hours ago, Dona Eis Requiem said:

Supergroups:

Do we still use these to have a group of like-minded folks to accompany us on our travels? Is your SG a solo stronghold?

 

Honestly, I do both, but the sg that I'm in with other people that I actively play with is just a couple of friends that I played RPGs with in the real world.

I have more than one sg group/base on three of the shards/servers and one sg on the other two.

 

I do a lot of PUGing. I do more PUGing then I do SG teaming most weeks.

 

13 hours ago, Dona Eis Requiem said:

Global/Local Friends: 

Do you actually add people to your friends lists? Is this something you generally don't bother with?

 

Yes. 

Sometimes. In generally, I rarely end up teaming up with people on my friends list. Sometimes due to when other people are on. Sometimes just randomly on PUGs.

 

14 hours ago, Dona Eis Requiem said:

For me, my SG is a solo thing. Would I be willing to join an existing SG? Sure, but I think I made it more difficult for myself by making the Unofficial RP server my home. I love the creativity being expressed by others but I don't do RP myself.

 

If you are talking about Everlasting, it is one of the more populated servers. And, though there are people on the server that do RP, most of the people on the server don't seem to RP as far as I can tell, but, then again, I'm PUGing pretty much 100% of the time that I'm on Everlasting.

 

If your character(s) being on the RPG server/Everlasting is really the issue, you can easily move characters from one server to another, but there may be an issue with your character's name being taken on another server.

 

15 hours ago, Dona Eis Requiem said:

So how do you go about the City these days? Do you still use these social options? 

 

I guess I pretty much already posted it, but to review.

I run the streets with some friends that I have gamed with in RPGs out in the real world in the past as an SG. I almost always end up with the star.

I do more PUGing then SG'ing. Sometimes I lead, sometimes I join. 

I use the friends options. I mainly use it to round up the people that I have known for years. The other people on the list are people I know that are cool to game with, but most of them have moved into just playing level 50's it seems, and I don't play the end-game, so....

 

 

[Dona Eis Requiem]

Thanks for indulging my curiosity.

I noticed that there were some folks new to CoH out and about and became curious what their experience might be like compared to Live.

That was really the only "goal" of my question. Perhaps this can aid them in their expectations when it comes to those types of things.

 

I enjoy my time on Everlasting and the people I've teamed with have generally been pleasant companions on whatever journey it is that we're on.

 

See you in Paragon!

 

@Incense and Iron

 

 

[Uun]

My SG on Excelsior is a solo stronghold but on Torch I belong to a SG consisting of remnants of a SG I belonged to on live. We generally get together and play on Monday nights. I do have global friends, but for the most part I rely on several chat and discord channels that are fairly active in organizing TFs and incarnate trials, both on Excelsior and Torch. 

[KC4800]

I am the Kip Drordy of Paragon.

[Greycat]

SGs:

 

For me they're a mix. I have some that are solo, yes - either just as homes to alts, or stuff I *would* make an active SG if I had time or inclination to actually run it. Others are shared with others, based on a theme or some bit of shared personal lore or whatever the SG is founded on, especially being an RPer. Some are there just to make use of the base for a setting of some sort, building your own office or mad scientist's lab or park or port or bar or what have you. We even make use of coalitions, to some extent.

 

Friends lists:

Yes, I make use of them, both the individual character lists and the global ones. Honestly I kind of wish I could make more than one and/or categorize them.

[Clave Dark 5]

On 9/27/2023 at 9:26 AM, Snarky said:

 I even got to watch then dance Sally onto shore for half an hour....)

I need to hear about this...

[Snarky]

8 minutes ago, Clave Dark 5 said:

I need to hear about this...

You have to get her off track.  They used teleport (I am almost positive) It was a year ago or more lol.  She looks weird on shore, she is just a neck and head after all.  They really experimented with it, found out about her tracking etc.  I just showed up for the lulz.  As usual, lazy old me.

[Saiyajinzoningen]

I Solo 95% of the time.

I ask before adding folks to my global

I usually add folks who are on during my normal play times (4am Est)

I am alone in my SG.

I do greet everyone on my global friend list when I log in.

If they respond a conversation may or may not ensue.

If they do not respond, well no harm no foul.

[Shamus47]

New player....

Nice to see forums where 'type the wrong answer' gets better results than a straight foreword question.

I have seen / heard no toxicity and am refreshingly surprised.

Keep it up!  So nice!  

 

[Clave Dark 5]

On 9/28/2023 at 7:38 PM, Snarky said:

You have to get her off track.  They used teleport (I am almost positive) It was a year ago or more lol.  She looks weird on shore, she is just a neck and head after all. 

Now I'm wondering about the pet recipe version they've announced for Sally, how's that going to work/look?  😃